Whitehall guilty of "too many examples" of poorly conceived consulations
Peers have hit out at the failure of Government departments and the Cabinet Office to monitor the effectiveness of their consultations, saying that there were too many examples where an important policy development had been preceded by a poorly conceived consultation exercise.
In a report, Inquiry into Government Consultation Practice, the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee of the House of Lords called on the Cabinet Office to issue advice on remedying bad departmental practice.
The Cabinet Office should also publish a yearly report which should draw on effective monitoring by each department of its own consultations, peers said.
The committee meanwhile warned that pressure on Government departments to deliver policies had intensified in this final Session of Parliament.
“While still taking their work forward, departments must resist that pressure to the extent of ensuring that consultations balance the interests of all concerned,” the report said.
The Committee welcomed indications from Minister for Government Policy Oliver Letwin that the Government would improve its consultation principles.
This would see those principles revised to:
- make it clear departments should set consultation periods that are not largely vitiated by coinciding with holidays;
- specify that departments should allow a period between the end of consultation and the laying of a statutory instrument to consider responses; and
- say that departments should publish their consultation summaries no later than the time of laying the instruments concerned before Parliament.
Commenting, Lord Goodlad, chairman of the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, said: “We welcome the improvements to the Government’s approach to consultation: those should be implemented soon. But we are concerned about the issue of overall responsibility for the Government's approach to consultation, and for tackling bad practice by individual Departments.
“The evidence that we heard suggests that this is not being taken up at the centre of Government. If neither the Prime Minister nor the Cabinet Office is able to intervene where departmental consultation is falling short, and if they lack either the information or the commitment to do so, something is badly wrong.”
He added: “In the interests of transparency, we propose that the Cabinet Office should publish a yearly report on Government consultation exercises, which would allow lessons to be learnt across Government.”
The committee’s report can be viewed here.
